Wigan chairman: United ´treated differently´

Wigan chairman Dave Whelan has accused the FA of double standards after Wayne Rooney escaped punishment for elbowing James McCarthy on Saturday.

The England striker appeared to catch the Wigan midfielder on the side of the head in the opening ten minutes of Manchester United’s 4-0 English Premier League win over Roberto Martinez’s Wigan.

Referee Mark Clattenburg saw the incident and decided to award a free-kick against Rooney but stopped short of showing a card to the United man, who scored his side’s third goal of the game.

After receiving Clattenburg’s report, the FA – who could have used video evidence to charge the forward with violent conduct – opted to take no further action against Rooney.

The striker will now be available for United’s trip to reigning Premier League champions Chelsea on Tuesday – a clear point of contention for Whelan.

“I cannot understand how the FA can say there will be no further action,” Whelan told the Daily Telegraph.

“Manchester United is a great club and Fergie is just simply the best manager, but it is the referees who seem to be afraid of applying the law to United and I don’t know why.”

“Man United get treated a little bit differently to the rest of the football clubs. I wish they would treat Wigan like that. I wish we could get away with certain things that Man United get away with.”

“Mark Clattenburg is usually a very good referee. I could not believe that (Rooney) was not sent off. Had it been one of our players, he would have walked.”

“Rooney was only ten yards from the referee and it was a deliberate elbow. It was the swipe of an elbow right across the head and a clear sending-off offence.”